Between human and beast
by hildekitten
Summary: What if a turning is the only thing that will save Beth's life?  How will it affect her relationship with Mick and her friends? Follows Prize Hound time wise.


**The werewolf bar in downtown LA.**

Jules and Ben were sitting at the bar. Jules was looking wistful at Ben's beer.

Ben handed him a bag of blood from the cooler he brought and had left on the ground next to the barstool he was now occupying.

"Cheers man. At least someone thinks of me." He gave the barkeep an unappreciative sort of look.

"Sorry man, but you're the only mixed breed we get in here, and even when Ben's brother in law shows up that still makes for too much blood that would go to waste. Besides, you can digest alcohol, have a beer like a normal person."

"Brother in law? Should I know about something?" Jules asked suspiciously.

"No, he prefers saying that to Ben's girlfriend's brother."

Jules turned to the barkeep. "What do you call me then?"

"Ben's brother in law."

"Doesn't that get confusing?"

"No, when people ask who I mean I say the half-breed or the vampire and then they know." He shrugged whilst wiping a glass with a towel.

"Wouldn't it just be easier to call us by our names? Or Ben's girlfriend's brother or Ben's sister's boyfriend?"

Ben patted Jules on the shoulder and smiled at the barkeep "He'll get used to you eventually."

The barkeep nodded, calling out a greeting to Mick and Beth coming in.

"Oh good you brought a cooler." Mick dove in, digging up a bag of A positive.

The barkeep handed him a glass.

"Thanks man." Mick started pouring his liquid meal.

"Why does he get a glass?" Jules complained.

"He's not French."

"My English is perfect you know!"

"You're still French though, and you have an accent."

"Admit it, it's because I'm better looking than you."

"You're better looking than 99% of mankind in general Jules" Mick pointed out.

"Ok boys that will do!" Beth involved herself, sounding stern. She smiled at the barkeep "Can I get a glass of white wine please Tom?"

"Of course you can Beth." He smiled back at her.

"Thank you."

She turned her attention to Ben. "So how exactly did you become a werewolf?"

"I'm surprised it took you this long to ask." He chuckled, taking another drink of his beer.

"She tried to get it out of Ophelia first but she wouldn't budge." Mick pointed out.

Ben chuckled "that's my girl."

"Were you born or bitten?"

"Born."

"Wait you can become a werewolf by getting bitten?" Mick suddenly devoted his full attention to Ben.

"Only if a person is near death and has exchanged blood with the werewolf."

"So could a vampire become a werewolf?" Beth wondered, making Jules choke on his blood laughing.

"Beth! Vampires are dead! You can't turn dead people in to anything!"

"Well stranger things have happened, it's a valid question!" She defended herself, sounding annoyed.

"Werewolves can become vampires, like Jules and his mother have. But not the other way around no. Due to vampires being undead. But seeing our nations co-exist in peace, there's not many that object to the dual natured. Still there's very few of them due to limited interaction and intermarriage between both nations."

"Finally, someone who uses the respectful term." Jules sounded grateful.

"I apparently have to be nice to you." Ben pointed out dryly, looking unimpressed.

"Did Claire threaten you into behaving?"

"No your brother did."

"Which one, I have a lot of brothers?" He asked in earnest.

"Lance."

"Lance is in town?" Mick gasped.

"Yeah he was wandering around with Ophelia, I saw them at lunch. Apparently Jules had complained to Lance that we always pick on him."

"Seriously dude, you're nearly a century old and you had to go get your big brother? How lame is that! My sister didn't even do that when we were kids and she was suffering from a very bad heart." Mick told off Jules, a mixture of mockery and disbelief in his voice.

"Pretty lame indeed." A voice from the door agreed.

They turned, recognising Lance's voice. He stood in the door opening, Ophelia on his arm.

"You're purposefully bringing 'round all your friends now so I'd start stocking up on blood right?" Tom complained.

"Well we have a big family." Ophelia grinned, limping to the empty stool next to Ben's.

"Are you STILL limping?" Jules sounded surprised.

"I broke my kneecap with silver you douche, that doesn't heal in a week's time. It's better than it was already."

"Only you can get stabbed that badly."

She rolled her eyes and snuggled up to her lover "Did you tell Beth how old you are yet?"

"Seriously you have no shame in using me as a diversion have you darling?" He looked at her warmly "I was hoping no one would bring that up."

"I know how old you are! Because Claire told me!" Jules sounded triumphant.

"Yeah did she tell you how old she is too?" Ben retorted.

"Yes and I don't mind, I like mature older women."

"You like women full stop, which has always been the problem." Ophelia reminded him.

"You're lucky you're sitting over there and I'm lazy, or I'd kick you in the bad knee."

"I'd kick you straight into next Sunday if you did." Lance pointed out, shutting his younger brother right up.

"Oh go on, how bad can it be? What are you? 32 tops right?" Mick tried to console his friend.

Ophelia laughed. "Well he's on the dot, sort of."

Ben turned to Mick and sighed "You'd be right. If you added a century."

"You're a 132 years old?" Beth gasped.

"I'm 874 years old yet I see no one being impressed by that fact!" Lance pointed out, almost complaining.

"Yeah but you're you know, a vampire elder, we expect you to be centuries old." Beth said, trying to sound as least offending as humanly possible.

Lance seemed satisfied by her response, taking a sip from Mick's drink.

"The o has a much better finish nephew."

"I don't think he's listening uncle Lance, he's still trying to get over Ben's age."

"I am! I didn't know werewolves aged _that_ slowly! How old can you guys get?"

"About 500 years if we're lucky, but very few become that old."

"And what if a person was turned into a werewolf?" Beth was curious.

"Your ageing would slow considerably after you're turned." Ben said.

"What is this? Are you bloodsuckers all ganging up on my brother and slash or my boyfriend again? I can see I'm going to have to save Jules from you lot!" She looked at Ben "you on the other hand are on your own brother dearest. Oh hey Beth." Claire ignored her brother's indignant glare and walked to hug the other woman cheerfully before kissing Jules and dragging him out with her by the arm, waving to the rest. Jules just grinned at them, not protesting his 'rescue' one bit.

"Well nice of her to take out the trash." Tom said watching them leave.

"That's my youngest brother you know." Lance remarked dryly, but he seemed to be more amused about the situation than anything else.

"I feel for you man." He handed Lance a glass.

"Merci bien." The elder hoisted the cooler on one knee looking through the contents for a blood type to his liking.

Ben reached for his blackberry the second ring it made, almost reflexively "Talbot."

He reached over to gently tap Beth on the shoulder, getting up.

"Beth and I will be there in 20 minutes."

"What's up?" she looked at him.

"We have the whereabouts of that serial killer."

"The child molester?"

"Yes."

Beth had her purse in hand and jacket on so fast Lance half started to suspect her of some kind of vampire power.

"Want me to come?" Mick asked.

"No we'll be fine, you guys stay, I'll call you later." Beth said before kissing her boyfriend goodbye.

Ben kissed Ophelia and patted Mick on the shoulder before leaving with Beth.

Lance watched them leave and turned to his niece, nephew and Tom. "So here we are, three vampires at a werewolf bar. It's like the start of a bad joke isn't it?"

*fade at them all chuckling, even Mick in spite of Lance's proximity to him.*

*******A house in LA, near the freeway.***

Ben and Beth were there with a Swat taskforce. Beth was pulling on her bullet proof vest and LAPD jacket. Ben was still in his suit, looking around the perimeter.

"Sir you need to wear a vest and jacket." One of the swat team members pointed out to him.

"Leave him be, we've got no time to argue, he knows the risk." Carl pointed out, double checking Beth's get up. "You're good to go."

A few weeks ago he would have insisted Ben wore the appropriate equipment but now that he knew the other man was a werewolf, he had decided to focus on Beth's safety rather than Ben's on times like these. He double checked his own vest one last time before he joined the rest of the group, ready to invade the house. Swat was first to kick in the front door and clearing the hallway. Beth got in front of them, running up the stairs. He heard Ben calling out at her to wait for Swat. He cursed as his phone vibrated, the fact it kept doing it meant someone really needed to speak to him. It rang 3 times, and then stopped only to be redialled. The code he and Jules had for emergencies. He picked up "make it quick the raid has started."

"Get Beth out."

"Ophelia? What the… did you see something?"

"Get her out Carl, trust me on this one, you need to…"

The rest of his friend's sentence was drowned out by gunfire, he could hear screaming; Swat shouting at someone, the suspect no doubt; and Ben shouting to clear the way.

He saw him carry out Beth, blood oozing from several chest wounds.

He was vaguely aware of hanging up on Ophelia and starting to call for an ambulance when he felt the phone being pulled out of his hand.

"Put her in the car, NOW."

"Ophelia how…" Ben was confused, obviously trying to get help for Beth. "She's been shot, with armour piercing rounds. We need help."

"Benjamin, the car, NOW!"

Ben started running towards Ophelia's Chevy with Beth in his arms.

"Drive to the hospital, don't worry about speed limits." Carl slapped his portable siren on the car's hood. "Go, I'll stay here and hold the fort."

"Can you even drive with that knee? We need to get to hospital in one piece, she doesn't have long."

"We're going to your parents, that's way closer."

"Lia she needs help!"

"She's dying Ben, even with skipping traffic she'll be dead on arrival, we both know it. There's no amount of our blood that is going to pull her back from this one."

Ben was tapping Beth's cheek softly "Beth, Beth please open your eyes."

When she complied he tried to smile "Beth, Beth, keep looking at me please, no don't close your eyes, come on Beth, stay with me."

He kept trying to keep her conscious, jumping out of the car the moment Ophelia pulled up. She didn't even wait for someone to open, simply put her shoulder against the door and broke it down. It was clear she was going on adrenaline, blood seeping from her injured knee down her leg.

Ben's mother looked shocked as they rushed in, placing Beth on the dining room table but stayed out of it, merely observing what was going on.

"Beth, Beth, come on, open your eyes…"

"You need to turn her Ben."

"Are you out of your goddamn mind Lia?"

"DO IT." She screamed at him, something she hardly ever did, tears in her black eyes.

"Ophelia you just can't…"

She continued, tears flowing from her eyes "Please Ben, you have to do it… I can't, she doesn't want to be a vampire… please… don't let her die, please don't…"

He cursed; throwing his bloodied jacket on the floor and ripping one sleeve of his shirt clean off. He bent down, licking some of the blood from a wound in Beth's neck and biting his wrist, pouring some of his own blood in Beth's mouth. "Come on Beth, swallow. Just once. You can do it, I know you can."

Ophelia was looking at them with baited breath and sighed in relief in unison with Ben when Beth swallowed before coughing and trying to open her eyes, but sinking back into unconsciousness, her heart very near to a complete halt.

"Forgive me Beth…"

With a low animalistic growl Ben bit down on Beth's shoulder, his sharp wolf teeth sinking into his friend's soft flesh. He could taste the last of her life in her blood, hear her heart beat flutter and stop, hear her last breath as she opened her eyes in shock, gasped just once with ragged breath and sank back into oblivion, eyes still open.

"She's gone…" his voice was barely audible as he suppressed a sob and backed against the wall.

Ophelia put her hand over Beth's heart and looked into her eyes. "Those aren't dead eyes. Beth! Beth listen to my voice! Don't fight the change; you know you want to live. Allow it to happen. Please come back to us. Please…" She rested her head on her friend's shoulder crying softly. "Please Beth… do it for Mick, think of my brother please…"

With a cough Beth suddenly sat upright, groaning as the bullets pushed themselves out of her chest and neck. They gasped as her hair turned fuller, her blue eyes now golden brown and wolf like.

"What happened?"

"Beth I'm so sorry." Ben was watching her with tears in his brown human eyes.

"What did you do?" She looked at Ophelia, sounding panicked.

"You were dying, he saved you."

"Wait, Ben saved me?"

"What did you think happened?"

"I thought you had turned me!"

"No Ben turned you. I couldn't turn you, you don't want to be a vampire and I don't want you and Mick to hate me!"

"I'm a werewolf?

"Yeah…" Ben looked apologetic.

"Oh thank god…" Beth hugged them both at the same time.

"You're not mad?" Ben sounded surprised and Ophelia started crying again out of pure shock.

Beth's eyes were full of tears. "No no I'm not mad at all, you saved me. You bought me the time I need. That Mick and I need."

"I guess now I don't need the defence of 'Ophelia made me' right?" He tried to lighten the mood by joking but the tears in his eyes revealed how emotional he really was.

"No no you don't. Thank you Lia, I've never been so glad you made anyone do something before."

"Thank my visions. If I didn't see you getting shot I wouldn't have gotten there in time to make Ben turn you."

"Where am I?" Beth was looking around, her eyes turning normal.

"In my home. Hi I'm Ben's mother Helen." They turned, realising Ben's mother had been in the room all along.

She walked over to them hugging her son to her closely. He welcomed the hug, resting his head on his mother's shoulder for a moment before letting go and wiping tears from his eyes.

"It'll be alright son, you'll see." She turned her attention to Beth "let me look at you dear, last time you and your friends were here I too busy with young Audrey to meet you."

"I wish I could have met you under different circumstances." Beth said, shaking Helen's hand.

Helen chuckled "oh trust me, most of the local nation wanders in and out of here with some issue or other at their leisure, I'm used to a lot You could even say that this location is made for it, to be a safe haven."

Beth nodded "thank you." She sounded grateful.

"You need to call Mick." Ophelia pointed out.

"And freshen up, I'll lend you some of Claire's clothes she leaves here for emergencies, come let me show you the bathroom. You'll feel much better when you've showered."

*fade at Beth nodding*

When Mick arrived at the old Talbot residence he stormed right in, forgetting to lock his car. The open door hanging from its hinges made him slow down and thread with extreme caution, his footsteps becoming more silent, inaudible to human ears, his eyes turning silver and his fangs lengthening.

He sighed with relief when he saw Beth and Ben at the table devouring steaks. Ophelia was resting her bad knee on a second chair and was drinking a glass of blood. The wounds closed up again now and the blood having cleaned off by Ben earlier whilst Beth was in the shower.

"Beth!" He ran over and hugged her to him, suddenly letting go as he sniffed her scent curious and suspiciously. "You're a…"

"Werewolf yes. Don't be mad at Ben, he had to, I would have died if hadn't turned me."

"Sorry…" Ben looked apologetic.

"See it this way; at least Beth has stopped being frail and breakable." Ophelia interjected.

"What does this mean?" Mick asked, suspiciously and clearly torn between hugging Beth to him and having a shit fit.

"That Beth can easily live to 250 before looking 40 years old." His sister answered from her corner of the table.

"What Ophelia said mainly. Don't worry Mick; turning with my kind isn't like turning with a vampire. The bond isn't nearly as big. Actually there's not much of a bond at all."

"I can smell that" Mick nodded. "If you had been sired there would always be some kind of underlying scent of your sire in there. But you just smell different, more feral and wild. More of nature, forests. You smell like Ben because you are both werewolves but not of him like you would have if you had been turned by a vampire."

"Unlike poor Mick and I who permanently stink of Coraline." Ophelia grumbled.

"Yes thank you for bringing THAT up." Mick snapped at her, glaring at his sister with silver eyes.

**Mick voice-over**

_And she just HAD to bring that up again. I would have thought that after Josef returned me I would carry his scent mixed in mine but no such luck. Why the hell am I letting this distract me to start with? _

"Don't snap at her, if she didn't show up and kept everyone's head screwed on right Beth would have died." Ben's voice got him out of his train of thought.

"Is that why you suddenly rushed out? Why didn't you tell me"

"Because I would have lost precious time trying to keep you not breaking mentally. What did you think it was? Some kind of attempt of forcing Lance and you to bond?"

"Yes! And it failed by the way. But no we didn't get into a fight."

"Then I call it success even though I didn't plan a damned thing."

"So what happens now?" Beth asked.

"I'll teach you to shift easily, but everything like tracking and stuff like that Mick can teach you, or if you would prefer someone else than either of us two to do it you could ask any of the other werewolves or dual natured you know. You know how the nations work; I don't need to explain a whole lot to you. You will probably get angered more easily, so you'll have to be careful not to give into that, especially as you may accidentally wolf out. Like the vampires our kind relies on secrecy for our survival. And you'll get grouchy at full moon… because well…"

"Werewolves feel the call of the wild. Expect your libido to be up. By a lot." Ophelia chimed in, finishing for Ben.

Ben nodded, looking a bit uncomfortable at the subject.

"So basically all the snapping at us just during full moon meant you couldn't wait to get home and hump my sister?" Mick said raising an eyebrow.

"Well the alternative is shifting in the woods and hunting game. Rabbits, stuff like that, not humans obviously. Never hunt humans."

"I'm so not hunting animals!" Beth complained. "Or humans for that matter, that's just sick and wrong."

"Well babe, I'm here for you at full moon." Mick's mood was lightening considerably, relief flowing in. And happiness at the prospect of new possibilities.

He turned to Ben again. "Thanks man, I owe you big time." He leaned over to hug Ben.

"No you don't. This is what friends do; we watch each other's backs."

**Mick-voice over**

"_Beth is alive__, able to be with me for centuries to come. And I didn't have to turn her. Sure this entire werewolf thing is unexpected, but if one thing has been proven in my family enough then it's that we can live just fine with the lunar wolves. And I love her; nothing will change that, nothing!"_

***Mick's bedroom***

He was lying under the sheets, his chest uncovered. The only thing visible from Beth was a shoulder and her head. She was snuggled up comfortably against his chest.

"Wow, I didn't know sex with a vampire could be this amazing…"

"Are you saying it wasn't amazing before?" he raised an eyebrow questioningly but was obviously teasing her.

"Oh trust me, it was, but tonight you've brought it to a whole new level." Beth was grinning like a loon, looking at Mick with lust filled eyes.

"Well the added bonus of you being a werewolf now is that I don't have to hold back anymore. I don't have to be afraid of hurting you." He softly kissed the top of her head.

"It's so strange, I guess I always knew we would find a way to stay together and postpone me becoming a vampire by a long time, but I never would have thought this would be the way."

"And you could still have kids too if you wanted."

"If you took the cure."

"Well that wouldn't be an issue."

"Isn't it rationed?"

"Well it was, but apparently one of my uncles went through Coraline's research and managed to replicate the cure successfully. Which means it's no longer rationed amongst the family. Ophelia has a box of the stuff safely stashed somewhere in this place. So whenever you're ready we could have kids. How do you like Elliot for a boy?"

"I love Elliott for a boy." She leaned in and kissed him.

***fade to the Angeles woods***

Ben, Beth, Mick and Ophelia were standing there, dressed in comfortable clothes, jeans and t-shirts. Or in Ophelia's case, leggings and tank top. Beth was looking frustrated, and went to find comfort in Mick's strong arms.

Ben looked at Beth "it's not as hard as it seems, I don't get why it's not working for you, I know you can do it."

She was getting angry with her own failure "I think we may have different approaches to this because you have no experience turning anyone and have been born a werewolf."

"I don't know anyone that was turned, all my friends in the moon nation are born lunar wolves but I could ask around I'm sure there's some turned ones in town."

"The answer is right in front of you." Ophelia remarked dryly.

It took him a moment to process that sentence, the other couple just rolled their eyes and clearly mentally wrote it off as one of Ophelia's usual unhelpful comments.

"Right, but didn't you…"

She held up a hand, cutting Ben's sentence short "now's not the time to keep secrets, Beth needs help and I won't have her tears on my head, it'll bite me in the ass later. Stuff like that always does."

She walked over to Beth and wrapped an arm around her friend's shoulder. "Ignore everything he said. Especially the 'maybe you should try it naked behind a bush' because clothes shift fine with you."

"At least he didn't suggest Beth stripped down right here." Mick remarked, giving Ben a look.

"Hey I thought it might help with a first change."

"Yes and it worked so well didn't it." Mick shot back.

Ophelia rolled her eyes and took Beth by the hand, a few yards away from the male bickering that was rapidly ensuing, leaving the boys to alleviate their stress by sniping at each other.

"Ok breathe in deeply, don't just get a big gulp of air but smell the forest as you breathe. Block everything else out, especially our jack ass boyfriends over there. Just listen to the woods around you. The sounds, accept you're part of it, your scent belongs here, _you_ belong here. You're a part of the woods, of nature. Imagine how it would feel, your bare paws on the undergrowth, running through the woods, in between the trees. In this place you are part of to your very core. Feel the change from within yourself, from within your soul."

Beth was closing her eyes and Ben nudged Mick, pointing at the girls.

"Hold my hand, feel the vibrations, let them guide your own change."

Beth reached out for Ophelia's hand. First she felt fingers, slowly slipping from hers, she felt something soft, fur and gasped when she saw, and felt, the change next to her. She could tell Ben felt the shift too. And she knew within the core of her being how it was done. One instant she was Beth Turner, standing there confused, the next moment she was a silver grey wolf with golden brown eyes. She looked at Ophelia's wolf form, lithe with reddish brown coat and pitch black eyes and started to run, exited, leaving her friend to catch up.

Ophelia shifted back "you go Ben; I can't run yet with that stupid busted knee." She looked at Beth disappearing behind some trees and sighed deeply, almost sad.

He nodded and shifted, taking off after Beth.

"You're a shifter?" Mick remarked, his jaw still on the ground.

"Back in the 80ties grandfather and I had this argument. Apparently turning humans into werewolves doesn't always work, and despite of nine previous attempts he couldn't be turned after having been administered the compound. So I said it had nothing to do with him being a vampire in true form and all with him being unlucky when it came to getting the genes to be susceptible to the transformation. So they gave me the compound, knowing my heart would give out sooner than later and had Jules try to turn me the second it did. We were both pretty pissed off about it."

"They forced it on you…"

She was staring at the ground. "Grandfather isn't a nice person when he's angry, he wanted to punish me for speaking to him the way I did. He felt it was disrespectful. Felt I was mocking him, imagine his surprise when I turned lunar. As the change did work he just closed his grip on me even further, because I had become more special. There had never been a dual natured oracle before as far as Cédric's knowledge. Jules couldn't bear it, couldn't deal with what he had done and started sleeping around, trying to make me not want to be with him anymore and it worked. Cédric knew his son well, manipulated him into it, so I would have no place to turn than the family, than him. Lance stood up to his father then, the only time I've ever seen him do it, and succeeded at prying me away to some degree, before I became cold and totally unhinged like grand…" she paused and corrected herself "like Cédric."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?" His voice was soft and he hugged her to him, gently wiping tears from her big black eyes.

"First I didn't want people to know, and then when he arrived in LA I didn't want to have to confront Jules with what he had done yet again. It took a lot of effort for us to be friends, to be close without being a couple. He doesn't have to keep on suffering for his father's misdeeds. And because I'm ashamed that I still love my grandsire because most of the time he's wonderful to me." She paused and hugged her brother, whispering in his ear. "Truth is, I really do not like being dual natured. At all. So I suppress that side of me and ignore it's there. This was one of the few times in nearly twenty years I shifted into wolf form."

"And you did it for Beth." Mick was visibly touched.

"Of course, she's your beloved, we're supposed to have each other's backs."

"How does Ben feel about this? I can imagine it's hard for him to know your ex is a werewolf crossbreed, let alone turned you."

"I told him back on Valentine's Day, he was a bit upset about it at first, but erm, let's say he appreciates the possibilities of having a girlfriend that can shift like him."

"Oh my god, I didn't want to think about that!"

"Dude that's just sick and twisted and not at all what I meant!"

"You meant hunting game didn't you."

"Yes and I do not need you to say what you were thinking of out loud!"

He laughed and hugged her to him closer. He was still laughing when the wolves returned, shifting back to their human forms.

"I can't believe I didn't think about explaining it to you this way." Ben was looking embarrassed.

"Well you didn't have prior experience turning people." Beth sounded exhilarated. She turned at Ophelia "how many more secrets are you keeping?"

"My closet is so full with skeletons I hardly have room for clothes. That's why so many of them are in Ben's closet."

"We'll deal with those another time, right now, I just want to home and spend some time with Beth." Mick said, nuzzling Beth's hair.

She grinned and reached up to kiss him.

"First I want to see if I can outrun a vampire."

"Race you to wolfrock creek" Mick grinned as Beth shifted again. His laughter could be heard as he ran after her, disappearing between the trees.

*fade to Mick walking into the family pool house, Jules was inside at the bar nursing a stiff drink. He looked up when he saw his nephew walk in*

"I heard about what happened with Beth from Claire. I take it you found out…"

"Yes."

"You have every right to hate me for what I put Ophelia through."

"I don't hate you; I know your hand was forced."

The French vampire nodded gravely "Be that as it may, I should have stood up to him more, tried more…"

"Trust me man, I know it's not easy to get away from the family, I spend over 30 years trying to get away from just Coraline. And that was just one of them, you had all 6 brothers and your parents to deal with so I can only imagine what kind of hell that must have been. It wasn't 'till I found love with Beth I was finally able to free myself from her grasp."

Jules smiled now, a genuine smile. "I loved Ophelia, with all my heart and soul. I felt like I lost a part of myself when we lost that love due to my actions, but I loved her so much I had to let her go, to make sure she could get away, at least a little, from my father's grasp, even if it meant she had to go live with my insane eldest brother. I jus couldn't allow her to become like my father. When we started talking again, became friends again, I knew we would never be more again. We tried, but it just wasn't the same so we let go of our past as a couple and choose a future as friends. And it was hard but it worked and we became the best of friends. And then we both ended up here and found love again." He turned to Mick, fire in his eyes. "Being with Claire, seeing Ophelia with Ben and you with Beth, it gives me hope. Hope that we will be able to live our own lives, spend a lifetime with those we choose to be with, rather than with a partner chosen for us."

Mick placed his hands on the other man's shoulders and looked him in the eye "We CAN, Jules. We ARE living our own lives."

His voice and blue eyes were sad "at least until my father comes knocking at our door again."

"We'll deal with that when the time comes." Mick was determined.

Jules nodded and poured the other man a drink. "Thanks for coming here."

"Hey you're family, we're supposed to have each other's back."

**Mick voice-over**

"_I never would have thought I would go and console a member of the Duvall family but here I am. __And I really care about this guy, he's my friend, and he's kin. And I don't want to see him hurt any more than I could stand those closer to me hurting. I have a family here, a life, and I'll be damned if I let Cédric come and ruin this for me."_

*fade at Mick and Jules tapping their glasses together and drinking in silence, understanding and friendship obvious between them.*


End file.
